1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a driving force-calculating system for automotive vehicles, which calculates a driving force required by the automotive vehicle (hereinafter referred to as "the desired driving force") depending on operating conditions of the vehicle, and a control system incorporating the same, and more particularly to a driving force-calculating system of this kind which calculates the driving force by the fuzzy inference, and a control system for automotive vehicles incorporating the same.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, a control system for automotive vehicles has been proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 1-113561, which determines whether the vehicle is traveling on a congested road, a city street, a highway, a mountain road, or an expressway, and controls the fuel injection timing of an internal combustion engine installed on the vehicle depending on results of the determination to thereby control the output torque of the engine in a manner suitable for the type of traveling road. The proposed system employs the fuzzy inference to carry out the above determination based on the throttle valve opening, the vehicle speed, the rotational speed of the engine, and the gear position.
Another control system has been proposed by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 3-163256 which determines the driving force required by an automotive vehicle by the use of the fuzzy inference, based on the amount of operation (stepping amount) of the accelerator pedal, an amount of change in the stepping amount, and the vehicle speed.
However, in the proposed systems, the desired driving force and the engine output torque are not corrected by the driver's characteristics (e.g. age, sex, and experience in driving). This makes it impossible to make the vehicle exhibit drivability so as to meet a wide range of requirements by drivers.
For example, even if the accelerator pedal is operated by drivers different in age or sex in an identical manner, it does not necessarily mean that they demand the same degree of acceleration by the operation. Further, even with drivers of the same age and the same sex, there can be variations in the degree of demand of acceleration between the drivers due to their different characteristics.